The Pantanal (Swamplands) is not a swamp as the name suggests, actually it's an immense plain that is flooded part of the year, it's the largest humid area of the planet. It's a world apart, with its language, its rhythm and its culture. It's impossible to sum up and it's not easy to comprehend either. The Indians called this place Xaraes Sea. The divisions normally used are North Pantanal and South Pantanal, each one of them with their small sub-swamplands. The Pantanal embraces an area of 2300.000 km² of the Brazilian territory, even extending to Paraguay and Bolivia. There are several transitions areas, there is no proper endemic flora, but as a matter of fact the area incorporates the elements of the main kinds of vegetation, such as savanna (cerrado), the Amazonian rain forest, and the Chaco forest. Although the area is flooded, the effects of the dry season on the vegetation are visible, especially on the firm lands intercalated between the flooded areas. The Pantanal possibly has the most diversified floating aquatic plants of the world. The swamp soil is sandy and clayed. The region weather is hot and humid with rains during summer and dryness in the winter, the rainy months are December, January and February; the dry period ranges from May to September.
